“La famille tout écran” (The all-screen family) is first of all a practical guide and a campaign of recommendations published in 2017 by CLEMI (Centre pour l’Education aux Médias et à l’Information) in association with the CANOPE network (a network for educational resources and support).
For the last few weeks, it has also been a series of 15 short episodes produced by CLEMI with the support of the Caisse d’Allocations Familiales (the family allowance fund), broadcast on the web and on the France Télévisions channels.
15 episodes of under 2 minutes each to tackle all the questions screens raise within the family: screens and sleep, screens at mealtimes, the pitfalls of social media, shocking images, video games, spotting fake news…
A worthy challenge, then, and to judge the result, I summoned my little family around the screen!
First of all, note that this mini-series adopts the tone and conventions of the shortcom, literally a “short comedy” (like “Un gars une fille”, or “Caméra café”): the same characters (a blended family with 3 children aged 16, 8 and 3), in a single setting (the house), with one theme per short episode.
The parent characters are very stereotyped. The mother is perfect: she is the only one in the family who uses very little screen time, she is the best informed, always has good ideas for resolving problem situations, and never loses her smile! The father character is very irresponsible; he is presented as the family’s 4th child, funny and endearing, but also often ridiculous…
The themes are approached in a humorous and offbeat way, at the risk of leaving only a small share to the educational messages the series is supposed to promote. No episode deals with constructive and interesting uses of screens; only problems and pitfalls are shown. Nor is there one on the help children can give parents when it comes to screens. The episodes are not equally successful. In some of them, the message delivered does not seem to follow from the sketch: the episode on screens at the table, for instance, is actually more about social media. The question of learning self-regulation, which is dear to us at 3-6-9-12, is not addressed: in the episode on video games, the parents regulate the children by cutting the wi-fi unexpectedly, what is more without telling them, and by mocking their reactions! Certainly more effective at amusing viewers, but not very educational… The episode on pornographic images, on the other hand, is funny and rather successful, as is the one on fake news, which shows that sharing questions about screens as a family is a good basis for discussion.
While the guide published in 2017 is comprehensive and instructive, my little family’s impressions of the series are mixed… The father feels the image of fathers is too systematically belittled, and wonders whether that might encourage children not to take their own father seriously… As the mother, I only half recognise myself in this Mrs Know-It-All character. After all, I too sometimes get things wrong about screens! The 15-year-old thinks “screens that talk to explain how to use them are a bit babyish, really”. Only the youngest, aged 10, is enthusiastic. She adores her mum and votes for the one in the series! In any case, everyone agrees that the theme tune is catchy but too long compared with the length of each episode.
In conclusion, the series is uneven, but watching it as a family lets you discuss together both the question of screens and that of education and everyone’s place in the family. And screens are only worth anything if we talk about them!
Medical director of the Hôpital de Jour pour Enfants André Boulloche in Paris, she works more particularly on the relationships young people have with screens, communication with young children, and autism.
